A69533:448

Five disputations of church-government and worship

Name: Five disputations of church-government and worship
Author: Richard Baxter

Five disputations of church-government and worship by Richard Baxter.

Richard Baxter 1615–1691London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1659

[10], 38, [10], 24, 492 p. · 215k words · Wing B1267 · ESTC R13446

Title page: Princeton Theological Seminary Library copy, digitized by the Internet Archive (opens the Internet Archive in a new tab)

Assert. Those who nullify our present Ministry and Churches, which… › Preface: The Preface.Assert. Those who nullifie our present Ministry and Churches, which… › Preface: The Preface.

Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.

[ Earlier:445–460 of 1,637

:445img 100

It is easy to conjecture of the ends and hearts of those that cry down Piety as preciseness, while they cry up their several wa•es of order: it seems they would have ordered impiety: and their order must be a means to keep down holiness, which all just order should promote. Those men that can fall in with the most notoriously ungodly, and favour and flatter them for the strengthening of their interest, do tell us what Discipline we may expect from them. If they tell us that our Churches also are corrupted, and all are not truly or eminently godly, we can say to them as Augustine (lib. de utilitat. Credend. cap. 17.) [Pauci hoc faciunt, pauciores been prudenterque faciunt: sed populi probant, populi audiunt, populi favent] yea we can say much more.

It is easie to conjecture of the ends and hearts of those that cry down Piety as preciseness, while they cry up their several wa•es of order: it seems they would have ordered impiety: and their order must be a means to keep down holiness, which all just order should promote. Those men that can fall in with the most notoriously ungodly, and favour and flatter them for the strengthening of their interest, do tell us what Discipline we may expect from them. If they tell us that our Churches also are corrupted, and all are not truly or eminently godly, we can say to them as Augustine (lib. de utilitat. Credend. cap. 17.) [Pauci hoc faciunt, pauciores bene prudenterque faciunt: sed populi probant, populi audiunt, populi favent] yea we can say much more.

:446img 100

But f•r those that go further, and clap the profanest railers on the back, and hiss them on to hiss at those that differ from them, and are glad to hear the rabble revile our Ministry and our Churches, in taking part with their Prelacy and Liturgy, they tell us louder what unity and order they desire, and what a mercy of God it is, that such as they have not their will: and though among themselves the slanders and reproaches of such men may go for credible or be accepted as conducing to their ends; yet in the conclusion such witnesses will bring no credit to their cause, nor with just men much discredit ours; at least it will not diminish our reputation with God, nor abate his

[ Earlier passages Later passages ]

Reformers309

Puritans1,782

Westminster Assembly24

Evangelicals36